Darth Disney: Life Beyond Lucas for Star Wars

Last month I wrote about what I felt was a betrayal of the deathbed wishes of Charles Schulz — that his comic not be continued after he passed away. Publisher extraordinaire David W. Boles posited as a comment on that article that art should move on beyond the life of the artist. I agree in principle, although I still think that a well respected artist should get his wish if he explicitly asks that nobody attempt to make original art based on his or her designs after death.

Having somewhat agreed to disagree, I was more than amused when auteur and filmmaker George Lucas more or less explicitly asked the Disney company, in their purchase of LucasArts Ltd., to do the exact opposite. Specifically, he stated in an interview after the sale that he has always believed that Star Wars had life beyond him and that it would flourish under the new leadership.

As it stands it looks as though we have a new Star Wars movie to look forward to every two to three years beginning in 2015. I have not seen explicitly if there will be an upper echelon on how many Star Wars movies are going to be made but I have to imagine that it will be at least three as the Star Wars movies were originally written as a nine part series — I am aware that in that article, Lucas says that he only made the nine movie remark in an offhand manner and did not mean to be take seriously. It is rather amusing that an off hand remark is now becoming reality.

The online fan communities of Star Wars have collectively groaned at the thought of Star Wars movies being made under the guidance of Disney. I would like to think that the people that made The Avengers — a Disney owned Marvel made movie — hit over two hundred million dollars at the box office in its first weekend had no problem with the movie being made by a company that was owned by Disney.

Moreover, all of the people who have posted photographs of Mickey Mouse dressed as a Jedi warrior or other such things seem to have missed the memo a long time ago — if you check the gift shops outside of the DisneyLand / Walt Disney World attraction Star Tours, a featured attraction since 1987, you will find that there have been souvenirs bearing that likeness for a long time.

As the father of a toddler, I will sadly not be joining the people waiting in line for the midnight screenings of the next Star Wars movies, I know that by then he will be a bit older — but so will I and midnight screenings are no longer as fun, but I most certainly will be seeing it that opening weekend, regardless of the fact that Disney now owns the company that makes them.